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August 30, 2013

Six data loss prevention strategies for mobile environments
Mobile data security strategies should include measures that apply not only at the employee level but also throughout the chain of command. C-level executives need to understand how much data could be lost when employees routinely store files in their Dropbox accounts. IT departments have to help executives understand the implications of unsecured data and access to corporate systems.

Common & Practical Problems of Requirements Elicitation
Requirement elicitation is an important and challenging phase of any software project. This holds good for both product and project development activities, but the approach, techniques might vary. A well specified requirement has been found to considerably improve success rates of projects. Though various methods and techniques have evolved over the last couple of decades to better produce a good requirements specification, many struggle to get it done well.

Enterprise software: 'Do our customers love us?'
Focusing on outcomes stands in stark contrast to feature-based selling, which historically has been the approach used by technology and enterprise software companies. For example, we are all aware of "feature wars," in which software companies publish endless lists of product attributes in an effort to demonstrate greater value and benefit than the competition.

5 Key Questions to Ask for Maximum Business Performance
It seems that no time is convenient to pause the action and review strategy. When you’re in the thick of the battle to produce a product on time, under budget, with superior quality, a strategic review may seem like a waste of time or a misuse of resources. That said, failure to review strategy may result in getting to the wrong destination while doing so very efficiently. By asking five basic questions and considering the answers, you might optimize business performance and not just operations performance.

Amazon's Push to the Cloud Adds to Server-Market Woes
"There will absolutely be fewer buyers of physical machines," predicts Bryan Cantrill, a senior vice president at Joyent Inc., another company that hosts computing operations. "But we don't know if there will be fewer physical machines sold." The crosscurrents can be seen in new data from market researchers. Gartner, for example, on Wednesday said second-quarter server revenue declined 3.8% from the year-earlier period.

BYOT: Where does it fit into future IT trends? Readers sound off
In a SearchCIO tweet jam recap, participants suggested current trends toward bring your own technology would continue to offer unique opportunities for enterprise IT departments, but also raise new management headaches. Their predictions shed some light on future IT trends, and we followed up by polling our readers, "Are BYOD policies a major concern for CIOs or a fizzling priority?"

The Database Administrator's Back-to-School Checklist
The DBA is responsible for recoverability, data availability, data access performance, and security. Within each of these areas there are many possible places to begin. Below, I provide the three most important areas for the DBA to address immediately. The current quiet period between summer vacations and peak season provides time for contingency planning in order to be ready for the expected upcoming resource and capacity constraints.

NIST subjects draft cybersecurity framework to more public scrutiny
The agency is scheduled to release a full preliminary draft in October, for public review. It will then issue the final 1.0 version of the framework in February 2014 and continue to update the framework thereafter. When finished, the framework will provide guidance for organizations on how to manage cybersecurity risk, "in a manner similar to financial, safety, and operational risk," the document states.

How Social Analytics Can Improve Enterprise IT Efficiency
"Think of it like a 3D networking topography," says VoloMetrix CEO Ryan Fuller. "A general organizational chart is flat -- it shows who reports to whom, but it doesn't show who's collaborating across departments and divisions and with whom, who's working together on certain projects, the dependencies and the connections. This is a great source of untapped data," Fuller says.

Preparing for Continuous Delivery in the Enterprise
As a concept, Continuous Delivery has been around for a while, and has indeed been practiced by the front runners in this field for many years. As a result, there are plenty of books and other references describing the principles and practices of Continuous Delivery, as well as sketching out in detail what the “goal state” can look like. These materials can provide an important theoretical grounding and help you develop your Continuous Delivery vision.

Quote for the day:"Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come." -- Perry Paxton